Before the thought even took true form in my head, I exploded The Ice into oblivion, just in time. The misty explosion covered the windshield of the sedan like it had been bombed with a water balloon.

  I caught another bike from the corner of my eye, noticing Rusty seated on the back. I could see his arms around the biker, tied with rope, gripping the leather jacket of the Bosu Zoku. There was no way he could jump off, not that he would if he could at that speed.

  It all seemed a blur. In that same second of time, I also saw my dad on the back of another bike zooming along on the other side of Mom's car. Soon, the very people I had come to save would be long gone, with no way to follow.

  An instinct I didn't realize was there took over.

  I shot a beam of ice straight toward the back of Mom's car as she passed, freezing it solid to the bumper on the back. I didn't want them to wreck, so I let The Ice expand in a line as the car moved forward. I quickly formed a large plate of Ice below me, like a wide, thick skateboard. I froze it around my feet, making sure plenty of ice was between them and the ground. Then I stopped the expansion of the line of Ice, and my whole body shot forward like a rocket as I trailed the vehicle. The beam of ice held me solidly attached to the bumper, the plate of ice skimming the ground below me. I kept forming ice on the bottom of the plate as it eroded against the pavement.

  With the sudden addition of all the weight, the car slowed a bit before climbing back up to speed.

  With seconds now to actually think, I couldn't believe what I was doing. I was skiing behind a speeding car with a rope and board made of ice.

  The driver tried swerving to break the long line of ice. I was way ahead of him. The Ice had become part of me, obeying me before I could form thoughts. The Ice liquefied and reformed with every move, becoming a fluid rope as we made our way down the freeway.

  Then, the other bikers got involved.

  From every direction, Bosu Zoku converged on me and the rope of ice, intent on breaking it.

  A big guy came in from the left. With my free hand I shot a blast of ice at his wheels, instantly freezing them. He tumbled and rolled. Skinny guy from the right. Another blast of ice. He flipped into the air, screaming as we flew past.

  Two more from the left, three from the right. I pushed thick streams of ice in both directions, hitting all of them at the same time. They tumbled and smashed into each other, skidding straight for me. I blasted a line of ice to the ground like a rocket, shooting myself up into the air to let them pass under me. At the same time, the rope of ice in front of me continued its fluid forming and reforming. I came back down as I released the rocket pillar of ice back into the air. My skateboard of ice thickened, supporting me as I continued down the road, trailing the car.

  Rusty looked back at me. I didn't have time to yell or smile.

  More and more bikes were coming. With every ounce of effort in my body, I tracked them all and shot out streams of ice to knock them over. Still more came, from every direction. Some were foolish enough to attack, only to find themselves flung away like trash when they hit The Shield.

  Ice was shooting from me nonstop, blasting this way and that, almost out of control. One after the other, I kept them away from my rope of ice. Five to the left. Six to the right. Bikes and bodies tumbled and bounced all around me. Screams and taunts and roaring engines and screeching brakes and skidding tires and scraping metal filled the air. I was in chaos.

  Still more came. They were like army ants.

  Terrified, I realized these people were not afraid to die. The Shadow Ka were in control, and they swarmed in a kamikaze attempt to overwhelm me. Ten or more came in from each side, all at once, all aimed straight for the rope of ice in an attempt to destroy it. With a scream I blasted ice in every direction.

  It was not enough.

  As bodies and bikes flew in every direction, one got through.

  He flew through the rope, shattering it with such force that I couldn't reform it in time.

  My line broken, I flew forward head first, the plate of ice attached to my feet releasing into the air with a misty explosion.

  I bounced along the ground like I was in a bubble, The Shield protecting me completely.

  I got up and stared ahead. My heart dropped in despair watching the car and the few bikes that had made it through the onslaught storm ahead in a mad rush, leaving me behind.

  I had been so close.

  My family gone, I looked around me. People were squirming and groaning on the ground in every direction. The bikes lay scattered everywhere, solid ice attached to all of them in different places. Then I realized I had overlooked the obvious answer to my dilemma.

  The bikes.

  I ran to the closest one, released the ice from it, and pulled it up onto its wheels. A Bosu Zoku near the bike said something mean in Japanese, but I ignored him.

  I'd ridden dirt bikes with my cousins plenty of times, but these things were completely different. I had no choice. I had to try.

  I pushed a button and it started right up. I swung my leg over the seat, and took a deep breath. Then, I straightened my back, stared ahead, and twisted the throttle.

  The bike shot out from under me with a loud scream, screeching and skidding forward as I fell straight down onto my bottom. The Shield didn't protect me as much as usual, as if to say I deserved it.

  I got up and ran to the bike, ready to try again.

  This time, I leaned forward, and pulled back on the gas very slowly. It moved forward, and I increased the speed as I gained more confidence. Knowing that The Shield would protect me if I were to wreck, I quickly got the hang of it, going faster and faster until it felt like I'd been shot from a cannon. The wind ripped at my body, the roar of it deafening. The earsplitting scream of the bike was like nails on a chalkboard.

  I took it to its fastest speed. One big bump, one small mistake, and I would fly through the air like Superman. I wouldn't be hurt, but the bike might not survive, and then I would truly be done with my chase. With every bit of effort I could call forth, I concentrated on controlling the bike and gaining ground on the Bosu Zoku and my family.

  Thinking I was down and out, they must have slowed, because I soon spotted them in the distance. They were like glimmering buildings on the horizon, with the distant mountains rising up beyond them. Hoping they didn't notice me, I rode on.

  The road flew past below me, the trees a blur on both sides. It soon felt like I was in a different world, growing numb to the sensation of speed.

  Gaining on them, I could now make out their shapes. I could just see the two members of my family clinging to their captors, and the car with my mom in it.

  My eyes began to water, and I wiped them with my shoulders, not daring to let go with one of my hands. I had only been blinded for a moment, but when I looked again they were gone.

  No. They had just driven off the freeway, to the right. I caught sight of them again. They had come to a stop and were getting off the bikes and out of the car. For some reason, there appeared to be a big dust storm surrounding them. Dread filled me.

  There was a big shape behind them, hard to make out. I kept up my speed, racing ahead, desperate to get there.

  As I topped a slight rise in the road, it became clear what the object was. I couldn't believe it. The resources of this band of thugs were becoming more and more baffling.

  There, in the clearing, its blades beating the air around it, stirring dust in all directions, was something my new bike would never catch.

  A helicopter.

  Now truly desperate, I gunned the bike with a last burst of effort. I could see them getting on the helicopter, forcing my family members to do the same. The bad guys looked in my direction, surely with sneers even though I couldn't see them well enough.

  I reached the point where they had driven off of the road, having to slow down considerably to turn and drive toward them. They were so close. I revved the bike and shot toward them, but I knew I wouldn't make it.

  The last person jumped on, and the helicopter slowly lifted from the ground.

  I skidded to a halt and leaped from the bike, running the last few steps to where the huge flying vehicle had just been resting. I stared up at it, squinting to keep the dust from my eyes, wanting to scream and cry at the same time.

  Dad's head poked out of the side door and looked down at me, sadness filling his eyes, before he was jerked back inside.

  Then another face looked down at me as the helicopter reached a point forty feet above me. Even from that distance, I could tell there were no whites in the eyes of that face. And I recognized that horrible grin.

  Kenji.

  I decided to try my new trick with The Shield. I formed a ball of ice, and threw it up in the air. As it fell toward my head, I concentrated on The Shield, weaving thoughts into it, thinking I wanted the ice to rebound and shoot toward the chopper. A foot above me, it bounced off of The Shield and shot toward the helicopter with breathtaking speed. It whipped past it, barely missing.

  Kenji laughed, waved, and then yelled down to me, his words barely perceptible.

  “Jimmy-san! You can either continue your pointless search for the Gifts, or you can try to find where I am taking your family! Your choice!”

  With that, he ducked back into the helicopter with a final, demeaning wave.

  I realized shooting at the chopper was a stupid idea anyway. I couldn't take a chance of hurting my family.

  It was then that I had one of the craziest ideas of my life, even by the new Jimmy Fincher's standards.

  The helicopter had risen to about fifty yards, and was starting to turn itself around, ready to fly away. They would be gone in seconds.

  Staring through the swirling dust at the rising helicopter, I made my arms go rigid, slightly apart from the sides of my body, pointing down. I called upon The Ice, immediately feeling the tingling and hearing the crackling. As it formed around my hands, I asked myself if I really wanted to do this, then decided there was nothing to lose.

  I had always wanted to fly.

  Taking a deep breath, checking one last time to see exactly where the chopper was, I exerted every bit of my mental strength into throwing a command at The Ice. This would far surpass anything I'd done so far with the second Gift.

  From both arms, I pushed The Ice in a massive, explosive blast toward the ground below me. Two thick, icy pillars thundered into the ground, and my body shot skyward. I concentrated, forming more and more ice, lengthening the pillars, making me fly.

  The breath ripped out of my lungs, and my heart slammed into my gut. I wanted to scream but couldn't gather enough air to do so. Rocketing through the air, wind tearing at my body, I began to fear I'd gone too far. The Ice exploded out of my hands, no longer creating the gentle crackling sound; it was more like an avalanche. Everything seemed out of control as the two pillars of ice shot me toward the helicopter in a mad rush.

  It started to move forward, finally ready to leave. Kenji looked out, failing to hide his complete disbelief at seeing a boy catapulted through the air by shafts of ice. He quickly yelled something, and the chopper took off.

  With a thought, The Ice changed direction, compensating for the movement of the helicopter, and I shot toward it, ice exploding in two streams behind me.

  Within seconds, I was there.

  Just as I was about to slam into the bottom landing leg of the helicopter, I exploded The Ice back into the air, releasing my arms.

  The next seconds seemed to last a lifetime.

  Knowing I only had one chance at this before I plummeted to the ground, I flailed my arms forward, trying to grab the left horizontal landing leg below the flying machine. The momentum of my flight slammed me into it, The Shield making the whole helicopter rebound violently. It wobbled and pitched, making me miss my chance.

  I started to fall, the chopper five feet away.

  I shot a stream of Ice toward the leg, freezing it solid. My fall stopped, my arm attached now to the chopper by a slender line of ice. The chopper flew forward, the sudden movement momentarily breaking my ice. It instantly re-formed and started its fluid solidity that I had learned with the car chase. I swayed back and forth as the ice acted more like a rope than frozen water.

  I tried something new, again.

  With a thought, the ice between me and the leg of the helicopter began shrinking, slowly pulling me upward. Mist from the releasing of Ice flew into my face, and soon I was only a foot or so underneath the leg. Wind tore at my clothes as the helicopter gained speed. It was difficult to breathe.

  My hands touched the metal bar, and once I had a good grip, I released the remaining ice. I flung my legs upward and cradled the bar with my whole body, hanging underneath it. The helicopter was now ripping through the air at a petrifying speed. It also continued to gain altitude. I shot a glance below me. The ground was miles away, the freeway a ribbon of black against the green land surrounding it.

  I looked back up, right into the eyes of Kenji.

  He was not smiling.

  “You are a freak!” he yelled, the wind ripping his hair in all directions. “A monster!”

  He pulled out a suitcase and hurled it at me, although he must have known it was useless. I sent waves of thought to The Shield, and the suitcase bounced violently right back at Kenji. He ducked inside, the bag narrowly missing him. It tumbled away, lost forever. Someone would need to buy new underwear.

  I caught my breath, forcing myself to inhale and exhale, in and out, deeply. Then I let go of the metal bar with one hand, and shot a pillar of ice toward the top of the open side door. I froze it in a wide swath across the metal, then repeated the shrinking trick, letting go of the bar with my legs and other hand and shooting upward as the icy rope shrunk to only a foot, my whole body now filling the open doorway.

  I swung my legs toward the inside of the helicopter, released The Ice, and slammed onto the floor of the cabin. Unbelievably, I had gone from the ground to a flying helicopter completely on my own. But there was no time to dwell on my new superhero powers.

  I scrambled to my feet and got my bearings. Kenji was up by the pilot, leaning toward him and talking feverishly. My family members were tied and bound, each in a separate seat. The individual seats were spaced several feet from each other, forming a triangle. There were other empty seats surrounding them.

  “Jimmy!” they all yelled at once as soon as I landed.

  “Jimmy,” Dad said, trying to be heard over the sounds of the rushing wind and beating blades of the helicopter, “How in the—”

  He couldn't finish his question. Shock molded his features. Our family had been through a lot of crazy things, but they never expected to see me catch a flying helicopter.

  I looked back at Kenji and the pilot.

  With horror, I saw the pilot stand up, leaving the controls. He threw his helmet off, and he and Kenji slowly inched over to the other side of the chopper, to the open door directly across from me.

  No one was left to man the controls.

  The chopper continued to fly, but it tilted slightly forward.

  “What are you doing?” I yelled. “I won't hurt you! Just land us and let us go. Please!”

  “Sorry, little Fincher-san. I have no words to describe what you have become. But our battle with you, for now, is over.”

  Kenji looked at his comrade, and they turned their backs to me. My eyes had to be lying to me. They did not have parachutes attached to them. They couldn't possibly—

  They did.

  Together, the two of them jumped, pushing off with their legs as they dove forward into the mad wind. I ran across the cabin, screaming in disbelief. I gasped at what I saw.

  Just before they left my field of vision, I saw the backs of their leather coats rip apart, and massive, black wings shot out behind them. Then, they were gone.

  Something was wrong, something had changed. The black lance of shadow from the biker during our mad charge at each other, and now this. Raspy's little display back at The Pointing Finger. There was only one explanation.

  The Shadow Ka were increasing their power, transforming their human hosts into something terrifying. The thought made me shiver, and I had to throw it out of my head. We had much bigger troubles, right here and now.

  I whipped around and stared at my family.

  Our time was short.

  The helicopter was now in a definite descent, the forward angle increasing by the second. Things started to slide from the back, odds and ends slamming into each other as they skittered toward the pilot chairs.

  “Jimmy, hurry!” Dad yelled.

  My mom was terrified, sobbing in fright. Rusty's eyes were full of panic, and he struggled against the ropes that bound him. I jumped into action.

  I ran to the controls and looked around, desperate for an obvious sign of how to fly the thing. A huge lever sat in front of the main pilot chair, and I sat down to see what I could do. I pushed it forward, while kicking some pedal on the floor to my left, which was the worst thing I could possibly do.

  With a horrible groan, the helicopter's front did a nosedive, and I flew out of the seat and slammed against the front windows. The Shield threw me back, and I reached out and grabbed the leg of an empty seat. The helicopter was now heading straight for the ground, and my family hung in their seats, facing downward, only in place because of the ropes that had been used to tie them there. Hanging from the seat, my legs pointed toward the front windows and the ground. I looked down.

  The ground was coming fast, the ribbon that had been the freeway growing thicker by the second.

  The Shield. The Shield was our only chance. I had to be touching each member of my family when we hit the ground.

  I shot a beam of ice toward the very back of the chopper, then shrunk it, pulling myself up until I was hanging between Mom and Dad.

  I frantically looked around. The seats were too far apart for a family hug. Another look down.